HabiMap™ & the State Wildlife Action Plan

The Arizona Game and Fish Department (Department) recently revised its State Wildlife Action Plan that provides a framework and information to assist in setting conservation priorities for the state’s wildlife and habitats. Data gathered for Arizona’s State Wildlife Action Plan represents myriad sources and extensive public comment, and is used to support the Department’s efforts to develop proactive conservation goals and objectives. Much of that data (more than 300 data layers) is compiled into a single model of wildlife conservation potential, the Species and Habitat Conservation Guide.

To ensure the State Wildlife Action Plan information is accessible and useful to everyone, the Arizona Game and Fish Department developed HabiMap™ Arizona. This user-friendly, web-based tool allows users to visually explore the distribution of Arizona’s wildlife, potential stressors to wildlife, the Species and Habitat Conservation Guide, and other relevant data.

The Species and Habitat Conservation Guide provides non-regulatory information compiled from the best available data, and is meant to identify Arizona’s wildlife conservation potential at a statewide scale, regardless of ownership. It does not replace or supersede consultation with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. HabiMap™ Arizona is intended to be used as an early planning tool for landscape-level analysis and should be used in concert with all available data and expertise to ensure project plans address wildlife and habitat conservation at all levels. Site-specific analysis will require additional wildlife information and on-the-ground expertise from the Arizona Game and Fish Department biologists. For more information on environmental compliance issues and special status species (including plants), please use the Online Environmental Review Tool at https://ert.azgfd.gov/.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department recognizes the need to continually update and refine HabiMap™ Arizona. As new or additional data becomes available to the Department, our team will make appropriate revisions and adaptations to the tool. Likewise, we encourage feedback and questions, which can be submitted through the HabiMap™ Arizona tool or by the gis@azgfd.gov email address.

What's New in HabiMap

View HabiMap™ Arizona layers within the recently updated Arizona Online Environmental Review Tool (ERT). Layers such as the Species and Habitat Conservation Guide, Species of Economic and Recreational Importance, Wildlife Waters, species distributions models, and more, can now be viewed in the ERT and used as a part of the project planning and evaluation process.

Species of Greatest Conservation Need Query: The SGCN Query tool creates a list of species identified as Species of Greatest Conservation Need in the Arizona State Wildlife Action Plan. It is based on potential species distribution models modeled at a landscape level. The results are displayed at a 3KM grid level. For more information about the Arizona State Wildlife Action Plan please use https://www.azgfd.com/wildlife/actionplan.

Heritage Data Query: The HDMS Query tool creates a sensitive species list generated from the Heritage Data Management System based on known occurrences. The results are at a quad level scale. For more information on HDMS and special status species please use https://www.azgfd.com/Wildlife/HeritageFund. For more information on environmental compliance issues and special status species (including plants), please use the Online Environmental Review Tool at https://ert.azgfd.gov/.

Breeding Bird Query: The ABBA Query tool creates a species list generated from the Arizona Breeding Bird Atlas.It is based on the results of surveys at a block level (approx. 10 sq. miles) and displayed at a quad level. It includes all detections of bird species determined to be possible, probable, or confirmed breeding within each block.

HabiMap Help Documents and Video Tutorials

To help you get started using HabiMap, several video tutorials and help documents have been created with the most basic user in mind.

How-To: Learn the basics of HabiMap™ Arizona, such as map navigation, turning on/off layers, and how to export a map to a Word or PowerPoint document.

How-To: Learn how to save and open project information created in HabiMap™ Arizona.